Tag Archives: dover street

A club where ladies met in Mayfair (London)

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NUMBER 35 DOVER Street in London’s Mayfair houses an art gallery on its ground and first floors. The hallway, where a concierge sits behind a desk has four old stained-glass windows, each of them depicting a lady. They look like Pre-Raphaelite images. The marble floor of the lift is inlaid with brass letters, spelling the word ‘Empress’.

Between 1898 and 1955, number 35 Dover Street was the clubhouse of a women’s club, the Empress Club, which was founded in 1897. It was not the only women’s club in the area (Albemarle Street, Dover Street and Grafton Street), which because of the presence of several clubs for women was known  popularly as ‘Petticoat Alley’. A website about the lost clubs of London (https://clubland.substack.com/p/lost-clubs-the-empress-club-1897) has a page detailing the history of the Empress Club. In late Victorian and Edwardian times, it was Mayfair’s leading women’s social club. Its members were mostly from aristocratic families. The feminist activist Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was a member.

The Empress Club began to decline slowly after WW1. During WW2, its members raised money and collected goods for the troops. In 1941, the club was badly damaged during the Blitz. Although attempts were made to revive the club in 1949, it could only stagger on unsteadily. It became a centre for illegal gambling, and was subject to a police raid in 1955. The website noted:

“In 1955, the Club was raided under the Betting Act, and nine men were arrested for illegal gambling on the premises, including popular comedian Tommy Knox of the ‘Crazy Gang’, who was remanded in custody. Knox was bound over to keep the peace, and the Club’s owners, Empress (Berkeley Square) Hotels, were fined £75. In the aftermath of the raid, and a wave of negative publicity portraying the Club in a seedy light, it dissolved later that year, and the building was sold off.”

In 2022, the building, which was designed by the architects John Thomas Wimperis & William Henry Arber, who were best known for building theatres, was completely refurbished. The people responsible for the refurbishment were architectural interior designer Maison Arabella and Orbit Architects. The gallery, which is housed within it is Lévy Gorvy Dayan, which is currently showing an excellent exhibition about which I will write soon.

A hidden oasis close to Piccadilly in London’s Mayfair

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WE VISIT DOVER Street in London’s Mayfair frequently to view exhibitions at the commercial art galleries along it. Laid out in the late 17th century, the street is named after Henry Jermyn (c1636-1708), 1st Baron Dover, who was a member of the syndicate that developed the area in which it is located.

Despite having walked along this street countless numbers of times, it was only this September (2024) that we spotted the entrance to a narrow alley way on the west side of the street between numbers 41 and 43. The alley is called Dover Yard. The first 12 yards of this passageway are covered by a high barrel vaulted, brick-lined ceiling. Then, after a short stretch open to the sky, one enters a wide yard made attractive with plenty of plants.

The yard itself is surrounded by modern buildings. In the 1970s, the yard, which has existed since the 18th century, was bought by developers and used as service area and parking lot (www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/londons-alleys-dover-yard-w1-64590/). It was redeveloped recently, and is now flanked by the elegantly designed Nightingale coffee bar and restaurant (part of 1 Hotel Mayfair) on the north side, and Dovetail, a Michelin-starred restaurant, faces it.  West of the wide yard, there is another narrow alleyway leading to Berkely Street. It has become a peaceful, almost hidden oasis in the heart of a busy part of Mayfair not far from Piccadilly.

As is often the case when revisiting places we thought we knew well in London, we come across places like Dover Yard, which we have passed often but never noticed. Although we did not try it, the Nightingale looks like it would be a very pleasant place to stop for refreshment.